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Episode46
Riding our Hot Streak! Location: Kovinatus System. Status: Reaver Incursion. The Ascendant fleet is largely depleted, down to 10% strength in the robot fighter department, but still with their Factory / Capitol Ships intact. The Kovinatus Home Fleet is locked in desperate combat with the Reaver Fleet, with one of their capital ships completely taken over by Zombies, and now the Reavers are sending Zombie-laden ships and asteroids crashing down onto Kovinatus Prime itself! The much reduced ex-Reaver-Planet Skellgrax still poses a significant threat, and appears to be continuing to direct the Reaver assault. Meanwhile, back in the local asteroid belt, the Light Fisters are trying to keep their heads down and move to the primary objective; the fabled Central Repository of the Progenitors. We were having issues with getting close to the gravitational anomaly where we thought it might be located however, due to heavy Reaver activity as previously described. Having last episode determined that the Reaver forces in the asteroid belt out-classed us in every way, we abandoned the fight and Kiwi just used his new Space Teleport Arch-Magic Spell to beam directly over to the anomaly that the Reaver General was rapidly approaching. He successfully sent the frequency, (without getting vaporized in the process even), but it did not trigger a gate to the Central Repository. Instead, it set off some sort of ancient Progenitor Anti-Reaver Super Brightness Trap! We watched in awe as a rapidly expanding Sphere of Light burst forth, blasting every Reaver in its path into dust and filling us with a huge rush of super Progenitor Fist of the Light mega ultra super boostiness! Unfortunately the effect was short-lived, and we soon returned to normal, with the Central Repository nowhere to be found. As we were still getting our bearings, 01, the Robot Commander of the Ark (2?) contacted us on his own super long range ultra secure Tachyon Communicator to politely inquire if we had been messing with the Repository, since he had noticed the activity via the Progenitor's Gate System, and that it happened to be coming from our location. When we alerted him to our activities, he kindly thought to mention that ages ago the Progenitors had moved the Central Repository to a quote "Off-Site", location, which in fact was our original Petrie, and that specifically he had it there on Arc, since we had taken it with us when we left, (and that we had been referring to it as the Deep Storage for years, and that it probably also contains the data on the G'neer Gate Energy Project that Pete had already spent 30 Blocks working on). A this point, we had a decision to make. Since 01 would only let the PCs have access to the Repository, we would need to go back to Vielos via the Tree Gate in the Hold to do the necessary research. The situation in Kovinus space remained precarious however, as the Progenitor Light-Blast explosion had only killed about 90% the Reavers in the System, and while it had seared the shit out of Skellgrax, (blasting away the half of him that was facing it, exposing his Internal Sections), he still remained a huge threat. Plus, there was still a massive Zombie fleet to contend with, multiple continents on the surface were under full zombie apocalypse, and the Ascendants remained decidedly on their back foot on every front. Oz mentioned his concern for the safety of his daughter down on the surface, but was comforted to recall that the Kovinata Fortress had never been breached in its many thousands of years of history. With the Alliance fleet far from the system, we have only the small VDFSDSFEF task-force, the Hound and our 3 personal Fighters to work with. Skellgrex is at the weakest he will ever be though, so now will certainly be our best chance to defeat him. Also, he may have noticed the little flash from over by our location, and has broken off from what was left of his fleet and is heading straight towards us at top speed, (not actually straight towards us actually, as he made a bit of a detour to snuff-out a Kovinatus noble convoy that we figured was probably on its way to the council meeting on Kovinatus Prime). In an effort to aid our strategy session, Oz attempted a Reaver Lore check to figure out best way to take out Skellgrax, and was rewarded with a Natural 20 ! Still Riding our Hot Streak, baby! Except, Skellgrax appears to be mostly invulnerable, still crawling with Zombies, and even if we succeeded in a complicated 3 part assault to disable his ship form, he would still just beam into his pre-prepared back-up Husk and be all level 40 and shit. We need to stop him from getting into the Husk, so we need some help. Oz went down to the hold to check for Shadow Reavers, and it was black with them! That's what we get for killing so many Reavers, I guess. With the help of the 'Reaver Filter' tin foil hat, Oz actually managed to communicate with one of Shadows and convinced them to help us, determining that we could get them to delay Skellgrax long enough for us to get a 4 hour block in before he caught up with us. In addition, the Shadow Reavers apparently had the ability to temporarily slow Skellgrax when he was in his shade form, (if we could get him to leave his big Ship-Husk that is). Also, apparently whichever Shadows attempted such a thing would almost certainly be giving up their un-life to do so, so maybe some persuasion might be required. At this point, our 14% of a plan summoned Traxis... the friendly dragon to assist us! Apparently he was watching us on his Familiar-Cam, and was concerned that we were about to get ourselves all killed. Instead, he suggested that he would distract Skellgrax with a frontal assault, knocking him out of his Ship-Husk while we made a surgical strike to destroy the back-up husk. Knowing that the Anti-Reaver fields of the VDFSDSFEF task-force weren't strong enought to ward off Skellgrax, we sent them off to assist the Ascendants against the surviving Reavers. Then we fleshed out the rest of the plan; Oz & Kiwi holding Spirit Lore seminars for the Shadow Reavers to convince them to go along with us, while Pete built a Tree-Metal Nano-implosion Demolition Device and Joe re-purposed some of the LRMs to carry a payload of Interferemetric Nanites Pete had conveniently on-hand to clear away Skellgrax's PR Field Generator, so that Kiwi could beam the party on board to deploy the bomb against the Husk. Time's up, here he comes! Despite some iffy Rolling by Pete on the Demolitions Check, (he ended up requiring assistance from both Oz and Kiwi), the plan actually went off otherwise with out a hitch, with Traxis... distracting Skellgrax in his giant Light Dragon Avatar of Reaver Ass Kicking form, while we launched the LRM from a distance, took out the PR Field Generator, and with Kiwis Help beamed on board. Pete scared the crap out of the rest of the party, (who had ignored his elaborate description of his implosive device), by setting it off while they were still aboard Skellgrax as the Zombies started to pour into the chamber. We immediately thereafter translocated back to the outer hull of the Hound, where we had an excellent view of Traxis... as he Draganaly raped the bejesus out of the Space-Husk until the Skellgrax shade popped out! As he was temporarily held in place by the suicidal Shadow Reavers who Oz had talked into volunteering to sacrifice themselves, we unleashed our combined 42 levels of Gaze of Rightousnessnous on Skellgrax, taking him out like a bitch! Traxis... flew over and thanked us for our assistance, favoring us with a fortuitous bow, but left without offering us anything more than that. We contacted the Alliance fleet, briefed them on the Reavers' latest tactics with the terrible Hook Rockets, then opened up negotiations with the Ascendants. Apparently they had been observing us pretty closely with their long range scanners, as they were were already up to speed on the situation. None the less, with most of their fleets destroyed, and their remaining forces locked in combat with the zombies both in space and on the ground, the Kovinatus were now highly motivated to seek greater assistance from the Alliance. To sweeten the pot, we figured out the best option to get the Alliance fleet here in only 10 days by using the Tree Gates and Home Tree One's double-FTL capability, then headed for Kovinatus Prime. Lord Gregor himself flew out to meet us in his royal yacht. He and Oz quickly exchanged media 'packages' and worked out the best messaging for the people of Kovinus and the galaxy at large. It featured the Fist entering into Skellgrax while Traxis engaged, us escaping, while Traxis raged, and then us combining our Gaze to destroy Skellgrax's shade capped off with Traxis' show of respect. We combined the Kovinus video with our own first-person highlights to present a very compelling story of our dramatic victory. Gregor was also anxious to discuss the terms of the Caste system before the Quorum in the morning. By a convenient stroke of 'luck' many of the most troublesome lords had been killed earlier by Reavers (and a few others more opportunistically) as they flew to the Quorum so the it was more of a formality than anything if we could convince Gregor of the benefits of our new socio-economic system. He had many questions and wanted to be sure that his family would continue to rule but Oz was ready for them having been directly involved in the caste-revolution on Xerxaw and, to a lesser extent, across Ekenwynne space. With the Reavers threatening, the surface of Kovinus Prime in ruins, and the local fleets decimated, it was probably one of the easiest Persuasions Oz has attempted in a long while. There was one other important passenger on the yacht; Xaquilina, Oz's six-year old daughter, was there and very happy to see him. Oz didn't let on during the earlier battle planning but he had internally resolved to do whatever he could to keep Skellgrax as far from her and Kovinus Prime as possible. Luckily, the motivations of his companions are fairly simple (and altruistic) so it didn't take too much convincing to get everyone on board with taking Skellgrax down. Oz was also pleased to note that her 'squirrel golem' friend was with her and watching out for her as designed. The next morning at the Quorum all went as planned and the Kovinata officially decided to join the Alliance. With their membership the Alliance now covers two thirds of the civilized galaxy spanning hundreds of worlds. It may have been 'hardball' to hold back our support until they agreed to our terms but this way we ultimately elevated the lives of millions of slaves and paved the way to increased prosperity for all. Next up: a brief pause on Kovinus and then a tree-gate back to Veilos to access the Central Repository/Deep Storage. The Star of the Progenitors may soon be within reach! 33 Generic, 2 combat Sadd 11 academic Karlid Bennie . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk